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Tichaona Zindoga Senior Reporter
collation and tabulation of results for national examinations is set for a major overhaul after Government identified flaws in the way the results are presented. Primary and Secondary Education Minister Cde Lazarus Dokora said as part of the new regime, June examinations results, which have not been incorporated in the national pass rate tally, would now be considered to make results “more comprehensive and more meaningful”.

“The results at the end of this year will be more meaningfully tabulated as we have been omitting the statistics for June examinations,” he said.

“They have not been reflecting in the November examinations, yet these are examinations taken in the same year. It’s like saying those who write on Monday, their statistical significance will not count alongside those who write on Friday.”

Minister Dokora said the concept of pass rate has been misconstrued as being cut off at five “O” Level passes, resulting in some schools being reported to have recorded zero pass rates.

“Ordinarily, particularly in the media, to say zero percent pass rate has a different meaning to the kind of interrogation that we do internally,” he said.

“The Zimsec examinations, if you write one subject and you get a credit, you will get your full certificate of that one subject. It’s a pass, but that is not the ordinary meaning that is conveyed in the media.”

Previously, national statistics have shown some schools recording zero pass rates.
Cde Dokora said that low pass rates, which have been in the range of 20 percent, were attributable to the economic hardships that the country has faced due to the West’s illegal sanctions regime.

The sanctions, he said, resulted in diminished Government capacity to build schools to cater for growing numbers of learners and to pay for teachers.